Behaviour
A visitor's leg, a sofa cushion, a puppy in the park. It is rarely sexual and almost never dominance; nearly always it is excitement looking for a way out.
Worth knowing. A dog who suddenly starts mounting as an adult, licks his genital area persistently or wees often needs a check-up with your own vet before any training plan.
Your visitor has only just sat down on the sofa and your two-year-old neutered male is already mounting his leg. Or you have a six-month-old bitch who humps every puppy in the park until the other owners start giving you looks. Or a dog who, every time you walk through the door, runs to his favourite cushion and grinds against it for two minutes with a glazed stare. Few things a dog does are more embarrassing, and few are as badly misunderstood. Most of the time it has nothing to do with sex. It almost never has anything to do with "dominance". Below is what it means in your dog, when it is worth worrying about and how to bring it down without punishment.
Humping (breeders call it mounting) is normal dog behaviour: males and females do it, entire or neutered. It turns up in play in puppies only a few weeks old and stays for life as a kind of release valve. The useful question is when it happens in your dog. Keep notes for a week: who or what he mounts, what happened in the half minute before, how long it lasts, whether he stops when you call him.
Play and excitement that boil over. This is the most common reason, especially in puppies and adolescents. Two or three minutes of running with another dog, the excitement climbs, and he has nowhere left to put it. So he mounts. You see it indoors, in the dog who jumps on the cushion just as the doorbell goes, and in the park, in the dog who after five minutes of play mounts whoever stops running.
Stress and uncertainty. It works like a sudden scratch or a yawn from a dog who is not tired. A new visitor, a noisy child, another dog who is too pushy, and the dog, unsure what to do, does whatever comes to hand.
Attention. The first time, everyone laughed. Or everyone leapt up, shouted his name, grabbed his collar. To him, any reaction is attention. A mounted leg stops the adults' conversation and turns every face towards him within a second, more reliably than anything else he knows.
Sexual. That happens too: entire males who can smell a bitch in season, bitches during their own season, young dogs around puberty at 6 to 12 months. Sexual mounting shows itself through the context and what follows (an erection, trying to lock on). Even in entire dogs it is the small share of the total.
A habit he can no longer stop. It is rare. He mounts the same cushion every day, for minutes on end, cannot be interrupted and seems switched off, as if he cannot hear you. Vets call it a compulsion, and the plan below is not enough on its own for that.
A medical cause. Itching or pain around the genitals, a urinary infection, full anal glands, a skin allergy, irritation in puppies. If an adult dog suddenly starts mounting, licks himself persistently or scoots his bottom along the carpet, see the vet before you start on any plan.
That leaves dominance. The idea that a dog mounting your leg "wants to be boss" comes from the wolf-pack theory, which even the man who launched it has since abandoned. In play between dogs, mounting has no fixed direction: the shy puppy mounts the confident one as often as the other way round, and they swap roles ten times in a quarter of an hour.
Laughing and filming. The clip is funny, and the dog takes away that this is how he gets the whole room round him. Next time he wants your company, he knows exactly what to do.
Punishment. Shouting, yanking the collar, a smack on the nose. If the mounting comes from stress, you have just piled more stress on top: he stops now and mounts more often next week. Some dogs start growling when you push them off a leg, and an embarrassment has turned into an aggression problem.
Castration as an off switch. In entire males who mount for sexual reasons, castration reduces it in some of them, sometimes only after a few months, because the habit outlasts the hormones. If an already neutered dog mounts, the cause was something else all along. Castration is a decision for you and your vet, on medical and breeding grounds. Done purely to stop humping, it often disappoints.
Letting him "get on with it" in the park. Nobody asked the other dog. An adult who will not put up with being mounted turns round and bites, fairly enough, and his owner judges you, also fairly enough. Yours thinks it is a game. His thinks it is harassment.
Pushing him off with your foot or hauling him up by the collar. You are touching him exactly when he is most wound up. To him it is still attention, and some dogs take it as the start of a new game.
You work on two fronts at once: bringing down the excitement in his day, and teaching him what to do instead of mounting. Do only one of the two and the result lasts about two days.
Three days of notes, as above. If you see any of the signs in the medical section, book an appointment with your vet as well. When the diary shows the mounting always follows the same thing (visitors, play, you coming home), you already have half the plan.
Mounting has a lead-in of a few seconds, and you can see it if you are watching: a fixed stare at the target, a paw on the other dog's back, panting with the mouth wide open, a stiff body, small steps around the leg or the cushion. At that moment, call him to you in a happy voice, praise him and give him a treat for coming, then give him a job: a few treats scattered on the floor and "find it". He cannot have his nose on the floor and be in a mounting position at the same time. If you only noticed once he was already on the leg, you were late; next time look ten seconds earlier.
"On your bed" and "down" are two things he cannot do while he is mounting. Practise them ten times a day for two weeks, first in a quiet room: you say the word, he lies down on the blanket, and the treat lands there on the blanket, with a cheerful "good boy", rather than coming from your hand. Then gradually add the things that wind him up: someone walking into the room, another dog on lead three metres away, the doorbell. You are aiming for the doorbell to send him to his blanket by himself, to wait there for you to bring him something good.
No fuss and no words. Take him by the harness (not the collar, so you do not tighten it round his neck just when he is wound up), walk him to his blanket and move away. If he starts again within the next minute, he spends one minute alone in another room with the door shut, then comes back as if nothing had happened. One minute is enough, because the point of the break is to let the excitement drop. Then ask yourself what you missed at step 2.
| Day | What you do |
|---|---|
| 1–3 | The diary. Book your vet if he is licking, weeing often or started suddenly. |
| 1–7 | "On your bed", ten repetitions a day, with nothing around to wind him up. Play with other dogs, with breaks every two or three minutes. |
| 3–7 | Learn the lead-in: the fixed stare and the paw on the back. Call him before he mounts and give him "find it" on the floor. |
| 5–7 | First visitor by the plan: rung ahead, lead and blanket ready, treats on the floor, ten minutes of nobody greeting him. |
| 7 | Reread the diary: where it has dropped, where it has not, and decide whether to keep going or call in a specialist. |
Some signs move mounting out of training and into the vet's consulting room, before any plan:
Tell your vet exactly what you have written down: since when, how often, on what. A check of the skin and genital area plus a urine test usually shows whether there is something to treat or whether it stays a behaviour problem.
In an assessment we start from your diary and from your dog seen in his own situations, at home or at play. Afterwards you know whether you need a behaviour modification programme or just a few changes to the rhythm of his day.
What dog owners search for most often on the internet about this problem, with the short answer.
Because in most dogs mounting has nothing to do with sex. It is excitement spilling over after play or when visitors arrive, a stress response, or a bid for attention that worked the first time. Hormones play no part in any of that, so castration does not change it either. You work on the situations where it happens.
For the same reasons as males: play that has got too high, insecurity, habit. In bitches it also shows up around seasons and false pregnancies, when it can come with bleeding, nest-building or guarding toys. If you see that, tell your vet. Otherwise the plan is the same as for any dog.
Most often, excitement looking for a way out, right at the lively moments of the day: when you come home, when the doorbell goes, after a game. If it is the same object every day, for minutes on end, and he does not stop when you call him, it may be a compulsion. Then you work with your vet and a behaviour specialist.
Only in some entire males who mount for sexual reasons, and sometimes only after a few months, because the habit outlasts the hormones. In dogs who mount from excitement or stress it changes nothing. Castration is a decision to make with your vet on medical grounds. As a fix for a behaviour problem it usually disappoints.
No. The pack theory, with a dog who "wants to be boss" over you, has been abandoned even by the man who came up with it. In play between dogs, mounting has no fixed direction: the shy one mounts the confident one as often as the other way round. A dog mounting your leg is wound up or wants attention, and that is what you need to sort out.
A behaviour that appears suddenly or changes for no apparent reason can have a medical cause. For full details, consult your dog's own veterinarian.
They often come together: the same causes, plans that complement each other.
Chewing, barking, racing round the house at ten at night and still not tired. A dog like that tires through his head, and you see the change within days.
They got on for a year and now they kick off at the door or on the sofa. People call it jealousy; we see a squabble over what they value, and often that is you.
He hides under the table at every doorbell or trembles at lorries. Exposed "to get used to it", he got worse. Confidence comes from distance and his own choice.
He asks to go out every hour, squats and passes a little, sometimes pink. Cystitis is the obvious guess, but stones and the prostate look the same at first.
An assessment session tells you where you stand and which plan makes sense for your dog. The behaviour programme then works step by step, reward-based only.